In United States patent application Ser. No. 582,229 which was filed May 30, 1975, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,563 and is assigned to the assignee of this application, there is disclosed an end closure for a rail car which is designed to protect the car from illegal or unauthorized entry. That end closure was composed of two sliding doors which when closed extended across the open end of the rail car. However, on some rail cars, one of the doors when open interfered with the operation of the hand brake lever, contrary to railroad regulations.
One object of this invention is to modify one of the doors in a manner such that it will not obstruct or interfere with the operation and use of the rail car hand brake lever. To that end, one of the doors is formed with a recess to clear the brake lever when the door is open. A panel is provided to close the recess when the door is closed.
In accordance with a further object of the invention, mechanism is provided for automatically moving the panel to a position opening the recess when the door is opened and for automatically moving the panel to a position closing the recess when the door is closed.